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Lifting up your Right Foot Before Impact


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That is if you play righty

So I had my swing videotaped and it turns out that I'm picking up my right foot before impact on the downswing, most severely with my driver in hand. I found this little piece on this problem on the net. It sounds correct to me, but if not, hopefully you all can correct it:

The right foot on the golf swing is something that can really tell a story as to what may be wrong with your golf swing. If you are a right-handed golfer, the right foot should stay on the ground until impact, then and only then will it come up and on to the ball of your foot. This is a flaw Tiger Woods has fought for a long time. With his explosive hip rotation, you comes off his right foot early on almost every swing. I want to discuss the physical requirement to be able to keep your right foot down in the golf swing. If you have a restriction in your right hip, groin and inner thigh area, you will no way be able to keep it down, you will bail out on this due to the restriction in the critical area that allows you to keep your right foot down. Also, if you're a "slider" of the golf swing, you will come off the right foot quickly, which is a telltale you are shifting your weight too fast laterally without rotating properly with your hips. The right foot is actually a reaction to a good swing. If you stay down, the foot will SLOWLY rotate without coming up too quickly. The other option is the foot comes up and out too quickly and you will most likely hit a slice or block.

Does anyone have any good drills, stretches or work-outs that help you keep your right foot down through impact? I feel like this bad habit is one of my main power killers.

Constantine

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Interesting topic. I am a little confused though to be honest. With the driver, your right foot at impact will be off the ground. This isn't just Tiger it's most every player on tour. Take a look at videos of Adam Scott, David Duval (back in the glory days), Ben Hogan... I could keep going. With your stance shoulder width apart, your right foot will be pulled off the ground when you "post up" on your left foot.

The key is where your right knee is going. If your right knee is going towards the target you are golden. This will help you maintain your spine angle and allow your left leg to give you something stable to rotate over. HOWEVER, if your right knee is going towards the ball you are bound for back problems, inconsistency, and just an ugly impact position. If that is your problem, I would absolutely recommend making a change. If your problem is that your right foot is off the ground at impact though and your knee is driving towards the target this is not a flaw.

Hope that helps. PM me if you need more than that and I would be more than happy to take a look at your swing if you can send me one.

T.M. O'Connell

What's in My Bag
Driver - 909 D2 9.5 degree
3 Wood - 909 F2 15.5 degreeHybrid - 909 H 19 degreeIrons - AP2 w/ Rifle 6.5Wedges - BN 60.04 & 54.11Putter - Pro Platinum Plus

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If your right knee is going towards the target you are golden.

if your right knee is going towards the ball you are bound for back problems, inconsistency, and just an ugly impact position.

I don't get what the difference is? In that second part do you mean that if the right knee moves out away in front of the body(and not in any way towards the target)?

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If I can get my hands on a camera that I can connect to my computer, I will post my swing at some point, thanks for the offer, TMO!

I found this on youtube, and it spends a decent portion talking about the right foot. I emailed Shawn Clement about this and he sent me this back, with a handful of his other videos.



However, in this video here, you can see that Freddie Couples clearly lifts his right foot well before impact, however, his weight transfer is basically perfect and he still seems to have some weight on the ball of his right foot.



The swing-vision portion of Freddie's swing is during the last 25 seconds or so. I guess this proves that the right foot doesn't matter if your weight transfer is flawless, yet for a non-pro like myself, it's probably a lot more important for me to keep it planted through impact.

Thoughts, anyone? Bueller?

Constantine

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Old school players, Hogan most notably, let their left foot leave the ground going back, and let the right foot come up going down.

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Do me a favor and send the swings to swingcheck@thesandtrap.com . More than happy to help.

T.M. O'Connell

What's in My Bag
Driver - 909 D2 9.5 degree
3 Wood - 909 F2 15.5 degreeHybrid - 909 H 19 degreeIrons - AP2 w/ Rifle 6.5Wedges - BN 60.04 & 54.11Putter - Pro Platinum Plus

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If you are in balance and have a proper pivot than it doesn't matter if the right foot stays down. Now if you're just hitting a normal 8 iron or short shot there really is no reason to lift that heel up. Most great ball strikers that lift the heel all have the right root rolling in towards the left before that heel comes up.

Also, make sure your hips aren't thrusting towards the ball on the down swing.
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I don't get what the difference is? In that second part do you mean that if the right knee moves out away in front of the body(and not in any way towards the target)?

I think TMO is right your right knee should move towards the left leg not 'brake down' towards the ball. Phil Mickelson recently have probs with this and was flying Butch in (during a tourny) to work on it apparantly. I saw it on telly where Butch was analysing his swing during a recent tourny and saying what he was trying to correct and it was his knee moving towards the ball, instead it should move to target (or left leg). I assume if on the down swing if your right knee drops towards the ball it will cause your shoulder to open at impact and cause all matter of problems, whereas if your right knee moves towards the left leg you can get your hips and then body opening out but keep your shoulders relatively straight at impact. Then through impact get release because your hips and body is open. Although not 100% on that one.
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The key is where your right knee is going. If your right knee is going towards the target you are golden.

I don't understand what you are saying. If you do it you're golden but if you do you're bound for back problems. ?? The right foot staying flat through impact is a product of using the ground effectively. The location of your right knee - the backswing anchor - will allow you to use the ground properly and it should go laterally during the downswing. How do you figure this helps maintain spine angle? If the knee moves OUT towards your target line (like mickelson) then your hips have to follow, and the hips end up underneath you and you end up in extension (standing up). The right foot and knee action will maintain the spine angle. Try hitting ball with your feet flat on the ground. I bet it goes farther.
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Great info TMO. Thank you.

I've been told my right foot/heel comes off the ground too early, before impact. Which I think it what leads to the right knee going towards the ball, instead of the target. I've been working on keeping my right heel grounded for just a split second longer and "rolling" my weight to the instep of my right foot as I near impact - which points the right knee towards the target. Then of course at impact your heel comes off the ground.

Has helped greatly with more consistent impact and has helped eliminate my problem of hitting everything towards the heel of the club, especially the driver.

Just thinking/typing out loud here. Thanks!
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I'm not sure where the disconnect is with TMO's comment. Makes perfect sense to me.

Your right knee going towards the target (where you are aiming) and towards the ball are 2 very different things. If your knee is going towards the ball you will lean forward during the swing and will probably end up with your balance all on your toes. That's what I used to always do.

Towards target = good.
Towards ball = bad.
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Question: Will too wide of a stance lead to picking up the right foot too soon? Sure seems to be easier to keep the right foot down with a narrower stance.

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Question: Will too wide of a stance lead to picking up the right foot too soon? Sure seems to be easier to keep the right foot down with a narrower stance.

The width of the stance does affect when the right foot comes up. During your down swing your body should be "posting up" on your left leg so with that weight shift you are going to pull towards the target. With a narrow stance, the right foot won't come up but the wider you get the more you should notice your right foot come up.

But seriously, there is just too much stress being put on the right foot right now. The right foot is a natural move. I would be much more concerned about the left leg or the right knee than the right foot. Like I said earlier, as long as your right knee is driving towards the target through impact I would not be concerned about whether the right foot is off the ground.

T.M. O'Connell

What's in My Bag
Driver - 909 D2 9.5 degree
3 Wood - 909 F2 15.5 degreeHybrid - 909 H 19 degreeIrons - AP2 w/ Rifle 6.5Wedges - BN 60.04 & 54.11Putter - Pro Platinum Plus

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I agree we shouldn't stress right foot lifting much. It is just an indicator not a driver of the swing.

My Clubs
Nicklaus Progressive XC Irons: 3H,4H, 5-GW
Ray Cook SW & Gyro 1 Putter
Taylor Made Burner Driver 10.5
Taylor Made V-Steel 3 & 5 MetalsMy Home Course: Indian RiverMy Blog: Rant-o-Rama-Ding-Dong

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  • 5 years later...
The problem with raising on toes, is that you're body raises up, robbing you of power (first), and increasing your chances of topping the ball (second). I blame this heavily for creating the off-balance situation. Some people have issues with toe-walking, and others just naturally walk on the balls of their feet rather than the heel. They (like me) are prone to raising up, and keeping heels planted is a constant battle because our weight is just naturally forward, and not on that back heel (my wife wears the heels out on socks...her weight by contrast is too far back). I've got a problem where I raise up on BOTH toes at impact. If I fix it, it creeps back. Happens mainly with the Driver, but on any shot requiring power. I can work at it, and usually train the left to stay down, bit it's harder to keep the right one down. It's also hard to see this, unless you freeze the video. Took me a while to see this problem until I had an app on an iPhone. But for me, topping the ball is the indicator that the problem has come back. I wish I had a training aid that could keep the weight on that back heel.
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LOL I can't believe this thread got bumped! This is the first thread I ever started on the site, and I hadn't even been playing golf for a year yet. Hilarious! :-D

Here's what I was doing wrong at the time: I was spinning out like crazy with my shoulders and hips while kicking my trail knee out towards the ball and then into my lead leg. Weight was firmly on the toes of my back foot... zero hip slide or pelvic extension, club and arms thrown well out above the plane. I think on old video of me you can see that by like A5 my right foot was basically already up on its toes lol.

Anyway, funny thread bump for me. I guess there a few reasons why this could happen to someone, but this is what I was doing when I wrote this OP back in 2009.

Constantine

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LOL I can't believe this thread got bumped! This is the first thread I ever started on the site, and I hadn't even been playing golf for a year yet. Hilarious!

Here's what I was doing wrong at the time: I was spinning out like crazy with my shoulders and hips while kicking my trail knee out towards the ball and then into my lead leg. Weight was firmly on the toes of my back foot... zero hip slide or pelvic extension, club and arms thrown well out above the plane. I think on old video of me you can see that by like A5 my right foot was basically already up on its toes lol.

Anyway, funny thread bump for me. I guess there a few reasons why this could happen to someone, but this is what I was doing when I wrote this OP back in 2009.

Back in simpler times when @JetFan1983 was a simpler man.

2009 JetFan: Hey guys, should I be lifting my foot at the same time as spinning out or should I wait until I start to fall backwards?

2014 JetFan: Hey guys, I feel as if my wrist conditions post A5 are interfering with my beta-torque, but it could be just be too much vertical axis in my DSP...gotta lay some more myelin.

:-$

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Quote:

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

LOL I can't believe this thread got bumped! This is the first thread I ever started on the site, and I hadn't even been playing golf for a year yet. Hilarious!

Here's what I was doing wrong at the time: I was spinning out like crazy with my shoulders and hips while kicking my trail knee out towards the ball and then into my lead leg. Weight was firmly on the toes of my back foot... zero hip slide or pelvic extension, club and arms thrown well out above the plane. I think on old video of me you can see that by like A5 my right foot was basically already up on its toes lol.

Anyway, funny thread bump for me. I guess there a few reasons why this could happen to someone, but this is what I was doing when I wrote this OP back in 2009.

Back in simpler times when @JetFan1983 was a simpler man.

2009 JetFan: Hey guys, should I be lifting my foot at the same time as spinning out or should I wait until I start to fall backwards?

2014 JetFan: Hey guys, I feel as if my wrist conditions post A5 are interfering with my beta-torque, but it could be just be too much vertical axis in my DSP...gotta lay some more myelin.

Lol! That damn beta torque gets the better of me every time. Luckily my angle of attack + my horizontal swing plane sometimes can contribute to a useable true path... crap, I'm getting an ice cream headache again.

Constantine

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Note: This thread is 3539 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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